Inventing the American Astronaut

Who were the men who led America''s first expeditions into space? Soldiers? Daredevils? The public sometimes imagined them that way: heroic military men and hot-shot pilots without the capacity for doubt, fear, or worry. However, early astronauts were hard-working and determined professionals - ''organization men'' - who were calm, calculating, and highly attuned to the politics and celebrity of t...